A pair of Northampton care homes could still face closure because of "poor leadership" despite climbing back from an "inadequate" rating.

St Michael's House & Lodge, in St Michael's Avenue, off Kettering Road, were branded with the lowest possible grade by CQC inspectors in June, who found mismatched medicine records and an "uncaring" culture towards patients.

Residents were even prompted to shave using an electric razor that was shared amongst everyone living at St Michael's. Bedroom doors were also locked during the day and people were not trusted with keys because "they are expensive to replace".

The homes have now been re-graded "requires improvement" in an unannounced inspection in August, with St Michael's Lodge improving in all areas - but failures in management at St Michaels House means officials could still cancel the providers' ability to run the service.

A report published last week (September 28) said: "The home was dirty and a number of areas on the ground floor including the laundry room were mouldy and posed a risk of harm to people.

"Throughout the home and in people's bedrooms we found broken items of furniture that were in use, dirty carpets and the home was in need of redecoration and updating.

"This inspection found that there was not enough improvement to take the provider out of special measures and that the [leadership] remained inadequate."

Although both homes had made some improvements in most areas, St Michael's Lodge management had failed to implement systems to monitor care quality, safety or cleanliness, or address breaches of care regulation, and will remain in special measures.

St Michaels Lodge, which has room for 24 residents between them, even earned a "good" rating at an inspection in 2016, while St Michaels House was marked as "requires improvement".

But in the report published in June 2017, both homes dropped to the lowest grading possible despite being led by the same team of managers.

St Michael's Lodge and St Michaels House are managed respectively by Raymond Galbraith and Anne Going. Two reports were published in the most recent inspection for each home. Only St Michael's Lodge has failed to leave special measures.